About Me

I am an old-fashioned American citizen who believes in our traditional values of freedom, truth, and justice. When I see our laws and government subverted and twisted into service of the undemocratic, powerful, corporate oligarchy, I must react with a patriotic defense of our values. I strongly oppose the ongoing destruction of what is left of American democracy and shall give voice to our common cause of freedom.
I invite you to share my thoughts. I also welcome your comments, be they contradictory, corrective, or complimentary. Only one comment and response will be allowed for anonymous trolls. Repeated, unidentified, and off-topic trolling will be deleted as spam.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Edwards the Scoundrel

So John Edwards turned out to be another pretty boy slimeball, and possibly a criminal. Another slippery cheater, to say the least. Plenty of that ilk in DC.

That still doesn’t make him wrong on policy and I don’t regret supporting him over the rest in ’08.

All we had were his words back then, and those words happened to be to the left of Obama. He may have lied to his wife and others, but his opinions on the issues were far more on track with solutions to the Big Mess.

Bush and Cheney also lied and are criminals. Whose lies were fatal to hundreds of thousands?

They usually all get elected before the real treachery comes out, and that is usually far worse for all of us than a guy who didn't even get elected, right?

Unfortunately, I think we have gotten use to politicians lying us. Campaign promises don't mean much anymore and knowingly blatantly false statements of fact are labeled "miss-statements" or simply "taken out of context".

And whose fault is it? OURS. We keep electing the idiots. If we cared, and showed it with our votes, we would see much better behavior.

w-d,Newt is no fool. He knows he can be a hypocrite and get away with the Republican double standard. GOP "values", ya know.

Jerry,It's partly our fault, but the entire system is corrupted by Big Money and rigged in favor of the Right's agenda. This is why we will never have a progressive president, unless Constitutinal changes are made to election funding and corporate personhood. The chances for that are slim to none until the masses wake up. And it could very well be too late for that.

Republicans believe that they are the only Christians in the world, and they forgive each other for sinning against each other.

They believe that liberals are all atheists, and so it's permissible to sin against them and to deny them forgiveness.

Fundamentalists Christians can swim in sin, knowing that Jesus will forgive them. And to gain the forgiveness and acceptance of other Christians when they get caught, they can fake piety and don a cloak of self righteousness.

This isn't an opinion, it's a fact that we see played over and over in Washington.

Edwards gave in to hubris and selfishness in his personal life, revealing a deep character flaw he will spend the rest of his life paying for. History is full of not only politicians but all kinds of people — doctors, businessmen and women, academics, clerics, etc. — who excelled in their careers while carrying on shabbily in their personal lives.

To have supported Edwards, as Dave did and I did, is nothing to apologize for. We had no idea he was cheating on his wife and letting her, his family, supporters and the causes he fought for down. Nor did we support him because we thought he was a model husband and father. We supported him because we shared his political vision and goals.

I know, I did like the things Edwards said. But I never really trusted him. There was something about him that rubbed me the wrong way. Guess we know now what it was... I agree with w-dervish - why is it Newt gets away with this stuff???

w-dervish wrote:". . .why is it that Newt Gingrich, who did basically the same thing to one of his exes . . ."

Gingrich is a serial adulterer who cheated on one after another of his wives. His big Tiffany's tab makes me wonder if the trinkets he's bought his current wife add up to the total bill, or if he's been handing some out to a mistress he's lined up to replace his current wife. Given his record, it's a reasonable suspicion.

Nothing should surprise voters, other politicians or the women in Gingrich's life. He's an unscrupulous liar who will say and do anything to get what he wants and hurt those who get in his way. Gingrich's past performance is well known, and in comparison, he makes Edwards look pristine.

Edwards was a phoney from the beginning. He disparaged the difference between the "two America's" and demonized the "evil rich" and yet he worked for a hedge fund to further enrich those very people.

I don't have a problem with him having done that, but it certainly seems hypocritical to his class warfare rhetoric. Of course, all that means is that Edwards was a run-of-the-mill Democrat.

Like Mr. Harper though, I was intrigued with his idea of eliminating government health coverage for congress. I bet that would get them to fix it for REAL this time. I think they should also have their government pensions eliminated so maybe they will one day take a serious look at Social Security before it is bankrupt too.

Wease,No matter how hypocritical a Republican is, he rarely suffers consequences. They arrogantly present themselves as God's Own Party. How else can the Party of the Elites fool the masses into thinking they represent them?

SW,At least Edwards has the sense to not run for president again, unlike Mr. “Family Values” Newt.

Mauigirl,Because he’s a Republican. They have no shame whatsoever, and they understand their supporters have no memory.

Tom,“Eliminating government health coverage for Congress until all American citizens are covered,” is only fair and reasonable, therefore, it will not happen.

TP,You’re right, Edwards is a phony in at least one serious sense. Then again, are not the words “phony” and “politician” pretty much synonymous? To his credit, Edwards spoke for all of us with, "Here's a radical idea. How about we have a President of the United States who believes in the Constitution and Bill of Rights?” That would be nice, wouldn’t it? Bush got away with ignoring it and Obama probably will too, thanks in no small part to the corrupt House and Senate. I swear we’d have a better country if there were no Democrats and Republicans. Greens and Libertarians could not possibly do any worse.